The House

Built on
colour.

The story of Paul Sagoo OBE — and why a house of colour exists at all.

Why a house of colour

A decade of black-tie taught him one thing: the room remembers the person who didn't wear black.

For fifteen years, Paul's evenings were spent in ballrooms — a sea of dinner jackets, every one of them black. The awards he founded honoured the boldest people of a generation, and they all arrived dressed identically. Somewhere between the red carpets and the podiums, an idea settled: the world doesn't lack for luxury. It lacks for colour with the confidence to be worn.

Eyewear was the deliberate choice. It sits in the one place nobody can miss — on your face, at eye level, in every photograph and every hello. A watch hides under a cuff; a pair of frames introduces you before you speak. So the first products of the house are the ones that meet the world first.

The PS monogram came first — two initials interlocked into a maze. Then someone spun it in a circle, a hundred times over, through every colour there is — and the radial was born: the signature that now runs across every temple, every case, every piece the house produces.

Everything the house makes is an edition of thirty-five, individually numbered, never repeated. Not a marketing line — a rule.

Paul Sagoo OBE

The Founder

Before the frames, there was a stage. Paul Sagoo spent fifteen years putting other people on it.

Born in west London in 1974 to a Sikh family, Paul read biomedical sciences at King's College London — a scientist's training he has never quite stopped using. He builds things the way a lab builds things: hypothesis, test, tighten, repeat. It is why a frame that drifts a tenth of a millimetre from its drawing never leaves the bench.

London made him, and Asia is where he chose to live. Paul now lives in Bangkok, having moved east to live inside the culture he spent fifteen years celebrating on stage. It is where the house works from, and where every frame is finished by hand.

He left science for business and has spent more than twenty years launching, backing and scaling brands. In 2022 he was appointed OBE in the Birthday Honours, for services to the Asian community, to diversity and inclusion, and for his philanthropic work. In 2013 LinkedIn named him one of its original Influencers — among the first invited voices on the platform, publishing alongside Richard Branson and James Caan.

Twenty years spent building other people's names. Then one built the way he would want it built himself.

The full story

Twenty years of building, before the house.

Read the full story

Lemon Group International is the house he built to do it from. It launches, backs and scales brands across events, media, luxury, technology and drinks — ten of them now, reaching an audience past a hundred million. It is not a fund. Lemon takes minority, equal or full ownership and then works: distribution, production, software, and a decade of knowing how a room actually fills. The rule Paul applies to what he backs is the same one he applies here — build only what you would build yourself.

In 2010 he founded The Asian Awards, the annual honours for the global Asian community across business, sport, entertainment, culture and public service. Categories that change with the year, an independent panel — chaired first by Baroness Verma and Lord Wei, and from 2014 by Lord Bilimoria. It ran at the Grosvenor House and then the Hilton on Park Lane, and in February 2027 its tenth edition leaves London for Mumbai. The stage he built has honoured Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan and Zayn Malik, and made posthumous awards to Freddie Mercury, Bruce Lee and Mother Teresa. What began as a room of a few hundred became the fixture the diaspora measures itself by.

The Asian Awards

In 2010 he founded the awards that had never existed: a night for the global Asian community, judged on merit, held to the standard of any honour in the world.

The Asian Awards began at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe, and later moved to the Hilton on Park Lane. Its categories span business, philanthropy, sport, science, culture and entertainment — Lifetime Achievement, Fellowship, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Leader of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement across cinema, music, television and technology. An independent panel decides them: co-chaired at the outset by Baroness Verma and Lord Wei, and from 2014 by Lord Bilimoria.

Amitabh Bachchan took the first Lifetime Achievement in 2010. Sachin Tendulkar was made a Fellow in 2017. Shah Rukh Khan, Zayn Malik and — posthumously — Freddie Mercury, Bruce Lee and Mother Teresa have all been honoured on that stage. What began as a British ceremony for those of Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin opened in 2013 to the whole of South, East and Southeast Asia, and in February 2027 the tenth edition leaves London for Mumbai — its first international staging. The awards partner with Global Citizen on their philanthropic work.

Fifteen years of it. Fifteen years of standing at the back of a ballroom watching the most remarkable people of a generation collect a trophy — every one of them, without exception, dressed in black.

Lemon Group International

The awards were the first brand. Lemon Group is the machine that has built the rest.

Paul is CEO of Lemon Group International, the London investment house he established after founding The Asian Awards. It launches, backs and scales brands across five sectors — events, media, luxury, technology and drinks — and it does so hands-on. The group takes minority, equal or full ownership and then works the business with its founders, contributing distribution, production, software and a decade and a half of events know-how rather than capital alone.

Ten brands sit in the portfolio today, reaching an audience of more than a hundred million. Alongside The Asian Awards it has built the Arab Awards and Refine Events, and its stated method is deliberately narrow: back only what you would build yourself, decide quickly, and hold the whole portfolio to the same standard of integrity.

Paul Sagoo — the house — is the luxury line of that group. It is also the first brand he has built for himself.

Recognition

Along the way

2010

The Asian Awards, founded

Honours for the global Asian community, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe. Amitabh Bachchan takes the first Lifetime Achievement.

2013

LinkedIn original Influencer

Among the platform's first invited voices, publishing alongside Richard Branson and James Caan. The same year, the awards open to the whole of South, East and Southeast Asia.

2014

Lord Bilimoria takes the chair

The independent judging panel passes from Baroness Verma and Lord Wei to Karan Bilimoria, Baron Bilimoria.

2017

Sachin Tendulkar, Fellow

The Fellowship — the house's highest honour — to the most capped batsman in the history of the game.

2022

OBE — Queen's Birthday Honours

For services to the Asian community, diversity & inclusion, and philanthropy.

2024

The mark, registered

The PS monogram enters the UK register — trade mark UK00004009291, filed 31 January, registered 26 April. The maze becomes official.

2026

Paul Sagoo, the house

Orders open for the first editions of thirty-five: The Square, The Aviator and The Coffret.

2027

The Asian Awards, Mumbai

The tenth edition, on 5 February 2027 at the Fairmont Mumbai, leaves London for the first time.

The Collection

See it in colour.

The silhouettes Choose your number